Send. Analyze. Target. Resend.

By Dan Robbins, Director of Marketing, Lyris, Inc.

The following article on web analytics comes to us from the Director of Marketing at ClickTracks, Lyris' web analytics solution. As web analytics is an important component of a company's email marketing and overall online marketing efforts, we thought we'd include this article in this issue of Making Mail Work.

And for information on how you can use ListManager in conjunction with ClickTracks Web Analytics, see our product page.

There’s a lot more learning to be had beyond open and click-through rates for your email marketing campaigns. By employing a web analytics tool to analyze the behavior of respondents you can gain valuable insight to just how effective your email campaign is—or isn’t.

Many marketers consider 'conversion' the holy grail of campaign success.  If the email generates a lead or a sale, it's considered successful; if it doesn't, it's considered a bust. But a lack of conversion doesn’t necessarily constitute a failure. By examining two key metrics—your visitors' average time on site (ATOS) and your campaign exit rate—you can understand where the conversion process needs improvement, and use those valuable insights in your follow up campaigns.

Focused Analysis

Segmentation is the key to gaining actionable insight on any of your marketing activities, including your email campaigns. You need to be able to focus on visitors who share common behavior when responding to a particular campaign.  Using your web analytics program to segment campaign respondents will provide valuable information in formulating your follow up campaigns.

Time is on Your Side

Time on site measures your web site's ability to successfully maintain each visitor's interest. It's also a good indicator of how well you're meeting visitor expectations—what they thought they were getting when they clicked through, and what they found once they arrived. Using average time on site for ‘all visitors’ as a benchmark, you’ll analyze the average time on site for just the visitors that came in through your email campaign and then compare.

We all like to be sure we’re getting the most for our money—and on the Web it only takes a few clicks to move from store to store or to a review site to validate (or decide to rethink) our choice.  That's why a higher than average time on site is a pretty good indicator of interest. 

If you have large groups of visitors with high ATOS but few conversions, examine your campaign offer and look for ways to create a sense of urgency and reason for quick action in your follow up campaign.  Give your lingering window-shoppers a catalyst to convert.

Leaving Like a Jet Plane?

Your campaign exit rate is also an effective way to gauge whether or not you met visitors' expectations. For example, if you send out an email message with a free shipping offer, your landing page should clearly restate the offer that got the recipient to click through in the first place.

If you're dealing with high exit rates, your first action should be to see how well your landing page reflects the promise made in your campaign. Using the same (or at least similar) graphics and promotion wording is a good start.

Final Judgment

It is also important to note that you shouldn't look at any one metric in a vacuum. Instead, you should take a holistic look at your metrics—including ROI, conversion, and visitor volume/response rate--to ensure that you have an accurate picture of the value of each campaign. 

By combining your email provider's metrics with a few key metrics from your web analysis software, you can improve the experience for customers both in their inboxes and on your site.

Dan S. Robbins serves as Director of Marketing for Lyris, Inc. where he oversees all marketing and branding  initiatives. Robbins started in online marketing 13 years ago while serving as Publishing Technologist and Online Product Manager for textbook publisher Addison Wesley. Since then, he has been in key roles in media, B2C, and B2B companies like ZDNet (now a CNET Networks property) and Dialpad Communications (now a Yahoo! service). 

Contact us at editor@lyris.com to share your ideas. We may include it in the next issue of Making Mail Work!